MIKE HUCKABEE ON FNS. Host Chris Wallace opened this morning’s edition of FOX News Sunday by talking to 2008 GOP Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. He asked him about that 1992 survey publicized by an opposing candidate in which Huckabee talks about quarantining patients with AIDS. Huckabee denied calling for such a quarantine; rather, he said they should look at established medical protocol rather than “political correctness.” He said that his answer was based on our limited knowledge of AIDS in 1992, and Wallace countered that the CDC had published in 1985 that AIDS could not be transmitted by casual contact. Huckabee noted that there was the case of the girl who was infected by her dentists, so we weren’t sure. Huckabee pointed out that he had two friends die of AIDS, including one who might have been a homosexual.

Wallace asked Huckabee about religion and public office. Huckabee said that the question should be: does he say and believe what he’s always said and believed? Mormonism, Huckabee argued, should not be an issue.

JOHN MCCAIN ON FNS. Next up for Wallace was John McCain, who argued against torture.

Wallace brought up that “neocon” Bob Kagan had averred that this latest NIE had destroyed U.S. credibility abroad. McCain argued that it was the Europeans who were skeptical of the latest NIE, as they’ve seen for themselves what Iran is doing.

Wallace brought up a spurious attack on McCain by Mitt Romney. Evidently, Romney is mailing fliers which claim that McCain wants to give Social Security to illegal immigrants, which Wallace pointed out was not true. McCain pointed out that Romney has been all over the map with his stated policy positions, and he’ll have to explain that to voters. McCain suggested that Romney was concerned about the polls in New Hampshire, and he reaverred that he would win New Hampshire.

Wallace asked McCain why none of the “big five” Republican candidates seemed to be catching fire in the imaginations of the voters, and McCain suggested that this was because there was “no establishment candidate.”

JOE BIDEN ON TW. To host George Stephanopoulos, Joe Biden declared that Iran is a “problem,” not something which requires the use of military force. He said that the Europeans were “embarrassed” by the United States. He said that there was “no such thing as a surgical strike” against Iran’s nuclear program, but the real problem is not Iran. The real problem, Joe Biden said, is Pakistan.

Joe Biden called for a special council to investigate the destruction of the interrogation tapes.

Joe Biden told Steph with a straight face that 20% - 30% of what we pay for a barrel of oil is because of President Bush’s rhetoric. Steph challenged this slightly, but he let Biden sputter and his claim remain.

Asserted Joe Biden: “Our credibility internationally has been absolutely devastated, absolutely devastated.” For the duration of the ABC interview, Biden moved back and forth between this theme and another that we still had credibility which President Bush would absolutely devastate if he did this or that of which Joe Biden did not approve.

“This Administration is out of control,” Joe Biden observed in an act of projection.

Host George Stephanopoulos brought up that Newt Gingrich thinks that the latest NIE is an act of sabotage by disgruntled former State Department employees. Joe Biden quipped: “I like Newt Gingrich I really do but who are you gonna believe?”

Steph showed a poll showing Biden in the law single digits in Iowa. Joe Biden smiled, cocksure: “I’m everybody’s second choice.” With a broad smile on his face, he promised Steph that he would drop out of the race if he did as badly as the polls indicate.

JOE BIDEN: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S SECOND CHOICE.

NEWT ON TW. Host George Stephanopoulos next spoke to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Newt said that the NIE was the product of three former State Department employees who do not like the Bush Administration. He said that the entire report was “mushed together” and didn’t say what our headlines assert. He said that the information came from a defector who could be a plant.

Newt said that we did not need a special counsel to investigate the destruction of the interrogation tapes, as the FBI could do a fine job.

Advice for Hillary? Newt said that Hillary should recruit women, telling them that she was their best hope for a female President and that such a President (Hillary, woman) would be the historic “change.” Hillary herself must become the answer to Obama’s Oprah.

RUDY GIULIANI ON MTP. Tim Russert’s guest on Meet the Press was 2008 GOP hopeful Rudy Giuliani part of his “meet the candidates” shtick. Russert opened by showing him the NBC/Mason-Dixon polls which shows Mike Huckabee crushing the nearest opposition, 32% to 20%, with Rudy a distant fifth place with 5-perecent. Russert asked, “Is that a problem?” Rudy chuckled tightly and said that he wished Russert had shown Florida, where he has an 18-point lead. He pointed out that some polls show him ahead and that polls show that he’s leading in most States. He promised to “work hard, maybe surprise a few people in Iowa, in New Hampshire.” He’s basing his campaign on doing well in Florida.

He said that if he wins “a couple” early “Florida for sure” then he goes into February 5th with leads in New York, Illinois, California, New Jersey, Connecticut “YEAAARRRRGH!” (Blue States, the lot of them.)

Rudy says he’s “in,” even if he loses Iowa and New Hampshire.

Russert asked Rudy about the latest NIE. He asked if it removed the option of a pre-emptive military strike against Iran. Rudy said that it did not, as everything must remain on the table. The NIE admits that it might not be correct. He pointed out that Iran has shown that it is susceptible to the pressure of the threat of the use of military force, as the NIE said that it backed off its nuclear program in 2003, the year the United States militarily deposed Saddam Hussein. They realized that they could be susceptible to the same thing.

Russert asked skeptically if Rudy were trying to claim that Iran stopped its nuclear program because we deposed Saddam Hussein. Rudy answered no, but we have to look at what was going on in 2003. If the report is correct, and he reminded Russert of the NIE’s own caveats, Iran stopped its program at the same time as we deposed Saddam, acted in Afghanistan, and Libya’s Qadaffi at long last gave up. The pressure was on. He suggested using the NIE with our allies, showing them that the pressure worked.

Russert quoted Giuliani advisor Norm Podhoretz as arguing that we should bomb Iran ASAP and that he was pretty sure Rudy agreed with him. Rudy said that his opinion was what he had just said to Russert, that the use of force was a last resort but should not be taken off the table.

Russert’s questions often bordered on childish, such as the one about cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar, but Giuliani was an adult. I’m not a Giuliani supporter, per se, but he came across as prepared to be President. (Rudy was splendiferous, and anyone who disagrees is not to be trusted as a human being whose soul is not a clod. Scratch that. I’m teasing.)

ROCKEFELLER AND HAGEL ON FTN. Host Bob Schieffer, for this week’s Face the Nation on CBS, offered us two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Democrat Jay Rockefeller and Republican Chuck Hagel.

Rockefeller said that it was a very good question: Why were the interrogation tapes destroyed? He speculated that there might have been things on the tapes which they didn’t want anyone to see or that they might have wanted the discussion to be dropped. Rockefeller said that he found out in 2006 that the interrogation vid had been destroyed.

Rockefeller said that he cannot say anything about what he’s learned about torture on the Intelligence Committee not even with “Chuck” though he did say that he was disturbed by it. The committee is going to call FBI Director Michael Hayden.

Hagel said that there was no justification for destroying the tapes. He said that everyone has confirmed to him including a Washington Post story that torture “doesnt work” in interrogation. If it doesn’t work, he asked aloud, why are we doing it? We are saying what to the world? That the Army field manual applies only to the Army, not to the CIA and those in the field? Hagel wants to know “how far this goes up in the White House.”

Schieffer asserted that Harriet Miers was told about it and simply asked them to stop it but didn’t tell the President. Hagel is convinced that “senior members of the White House” had to have been told, what with it “rattling around” for years.

Schieffer wondered it there were other tapes, and Rocky didn’t know. He finds it curious that they started taping in 2002 and stopped it in 2002.

Rocky and Chuck want Congress to investigate the tapes, not a special council.

On Iran, Hagel explained that intelligence is not a tidy, little box; rather, it is a mosaic. The latest NIE is the product of 16 agencies coming to a conclusion. He argued that Iran was still dangerous.

Schieffer said that this was the opposite of what the Administration has been telling us for three years.

Rocky said that “diplomacy can work,” citing North Korea as his example.

PERVEZ ON LE. Wolf Blitzer’s first guest on CNN’s Late Edition was Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, an interview taped “this weekend.” He was wearing a three-piece suit, tan with a green-ish tie, but am I color blind?

No medals.

Blitzer asked him if it would be okay if the U.S. acted on “actionable intelligence” and authorized US forces to march into Pak to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Pervez did not agree, saying that we share intelligence and “within Pakistan, the Pakistani forces will act.”

Blitzer suggested that various people in Pakistan’s military and intelligence are sympathetic to al Qaeda, and Pervez took very strong exception. “We are suffering, here,” and he cannot imagine anyone sympathizing with those who are killing their brothers.

Pervez said that there has not been a failure of Pakistani intelligence; rather, it is a failure of combined U.S. and Pakistani intelligence.

Those who criticize, he said, do not understand the situation on the ground.

Well, Musharraf was defensive.

Wolf quoted Afghan President Hamid Karzai talking about terrorists crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan and he tried to goad Musharraf into attacking Karzai. Pervez explicitly refused the bait and speculated that the terrorists were crossing from Afghanistan to Pakistan. “The real backbone of everything that’s happening here is in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan.”

After a commercial break, Musharraf pledged that the Pakistani elections in January will be “free and fair.” Blitzer quoted Benazir Bhutto and Nawar Sharif, the two ex-prime ministers, as having declared that the elections will be “rigged: (Sharif’s word). Musharraf talked about how he’s changed the law to make the elections more fair, which things we not done during the tenure of the former prime ministers. Musharraf said that they were “preparing for defeat.” He suggested that they should “accept defeat.”

Wolf kept asking him if Bhutto and Sharif would be allowed to run. Musharraf pointed out that the media in the West treats every country like a dictatorship. He argued that there is a system in Pakistan, basically a rule of laws and not men. It is not his place to allow or to disallow anyone from running for anything.

There was an old photograph behind Musharraf’s right shoulder, under a lamp.

Musharraf said that he had to remove the former chief justice of the Pakistani high court, “and he’s not coming back.” He asked us to “please understand us.” He would like to be interviewed by all media organizations, see the environment on the ground in Pak and don’t judge him by the situation on the ground in the United States.

JOHN BOEHNER ON LE. Wolf’s next guest on LE was House GOP leader John Boehner. This one was live.

Wolf wondered if our aid to Pak were well spent, and Boehner suggested that it was, although what has been happening in the past few months has been “troubling.” He expects the State of Emergency to “go away” soon.

Blitzer asked him about the NIE on Iran. Boehner wondered how we went from a dangerous, nearly nuclear armed Iran one moment to one without nukes now. Either he doesn’t have confidence in what the NIE told him a few months ago, he said, or he doesn’t have confidence in what they’re saying now. He doesn’t understand why it has changed so dramatically.

Boehner suggested that Iran was still dangerous, “its leadership on the border of being crazy.”

Blitzer asked him about the CIA destroying the vid in 2005. Boehner said that the-then CIA chief, the President, and Congress were not aware that this happened. He wants to get to the bottom of it. Wolf said that Biden had called for a special council, and Boehner thought there was no need for that.

Boehner accused Congressional Democrats of “blackmailing the President” for domestic spending when we need money to support our troops in Iraq. (It’s the latest Dem bill.) Blitzer played a clip of Steny Hoyer asserting that Bush has borrowed more money from foreign governments than anyone else combined. Blitzer argued that the Dems want only $11-billion. Boehner said that $11-billion was a lot of money. Blitzer argued that the Republicans had increased the national debt. He accused the Republicans of seeking to shut down the government and defunding the war simply because they refuse to give the Democrats a measly $11-billion. Boehner said that the money was a waste and they have to reduce spending, streamline the government.
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Now have it.